Knowing and understanding basic bird and animal behavior is critical to being a successful wildlife photographer. I am not talking about an understanding of complex biological processes, no I am talking about basic stuff. For example, last week I was in the Blackhills of South Dakota photographing with my wife and daughter. Every morning we would get up at 5 AM and head out to see what wildlife we could find. The mid-day temperatures were reaching well into the 90’s every day so there was very little critter movement during the day. Any and all wildlife encounters were going to be early in the morning or at the end of the day. This is basic biological behavior.

We were driving the wildlife loop road in Custer State Park and found a nice little valley with a number of trees and a small creek running through it. We parked our RV and my wife and I gathered up our camera gear and headed out across the prairie and into the valley. We were far enough away from the road where we wouldn’t be noticed but we were close enough to see what was going on where we parked. It was only 5:30 AM and the sun was just peeking over the horizon.

As we walked into the valley, a large Mule Deer buck spotted us and stood up. He looked at us for a while then turned and leaped over a fallen tree and bounded off deeper into the valley. I am sure he was in search of a cool shady spot in preparation for the coming days heat.

We moved into the valley in hopes of photographing a Spotted Towhee which is a large sparrow like bird with a long tail. The towhee was there and we did manage to get a few shots. I also wanted to make some audio recordings of this birds song so I hiked back to the RV and grabbed my large parabolic dish microphone and recorder. Within 20 minutes I had the recordings I was looking for. Within minutes we spotted a coyote that was trotting by on the far end of the valley. He didn’t stop so we didn’t get any images but it was great to see him anyway. Meanwhile two Common Nighthawks starting flying over head. This was fairly uncommon because these birds usually come out late in the evening. I managed a few nice in-flight images.

I could hear a Western Tanager singing from a tall Ponderosa Pine tree so we moved over to see if we could find it. Sure enough a beautiful male was singing his heart out so I set up my recorder and managed about 3 minutes of song recordings without any background noise. I was thrilled. We wanted to get some pictures of this bird but we were looking into the sun. In order to get the sun at our backs we had to cross a tiny stream. While stepping across the stream we could see about six Western Chorus Frogs in the water. This valley was stuffed with all sorts of critters.

The tanager cooperated and we got a few nice images. Just then a large Pronghorn buck crested the hill to our right. He gave several loud high pitched snorts because apparently he was not happy with us. No doubt he wanted to join us in the cool valley and wasn’t use to sharing.

By now it was getting close to 9 AM and I noticed the first of the many Safari Jeep rides coming down the road. These are open sided Jeeps with a guide / driver that take tourist around and point out wildlife. They were moving fairly fast and slowed down a little bit when they passed by our RV. They couldn’t see us but we could clearly see them and I am sure they were wondering what we were seeing.

I thought to myself, this is the first people we have seen all morning. Almost four hours had passed since we started photographing and recording. It was getting a little hot and we were about to call it a day and head back for some breakfast when the first wildlife watchers were showing up.

Obviously the people in the Jeep wanted to see some wildlife. So here is my point. If you don’t understand basic wildlife behavior you won’t see much wildlife. In the heat of the summer, don’t wait until 9 or 10 AM before going out. Another thing, get out of your vehicle and look around. The chances of seeing something cool is much greater when you are moving slower and are closer to the ground and away from the road. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on Twitter.com or Facebook.com